14 | 11.02.

06 | THE HERALD TRAVEL

RIO DE JANEIRO

Taking tourism to the edge

The slums of Rio are famous for violence, drugs and poverty. But some are far safer than the city centre and offer visitors peerless views. Tom Phillips charts the rise of favela tourism

he crackle of gunfire fills the air as we make our way down the gloomy, winding alleyway. Clusters of black-clad police special fo r c e s c r owd in t o t he str ee t , gibbering busily into two-way radios and scanning the surrounding streets for the enemy. We advance slowly and the piercingly loud shots continue. Children scurry past, apparently oblivious to the noise. Even in the notoriously violent city of Rio de Janeiro, this isnt the average hotel reception. But then the Maze is no ordinary hotel. Lodged deep in the Tavares Bastos favela high above the citys glitzy South Zone, the Maze is one of several swanky shantytown hotels opening their doors to foreign visitors this year. With breathtaking views of the raucous cityscape below, the hotels provide front-row seats from which to take

in the New Year fireworks or escape the relentless hedonism of the citys annual carnival, which is expected to attract no fewer than 700,000 tourists when it begins later this month. One of the gatekeepers to this hidden world is Bob Nadkarni, an eccentric Englishman and former war correspondent who swapped Beirut for the slums of Rio in the early eighties. On arriving in the city, Nadkarni immediately fell in love with the hilltop slums that litter Rios undulating landscape. He soon hatched a plan to build a ho t el t he r e w i t h hi s B r a z ili a n w ife. Twenty years later his dreams had become reality, though perhaps not quite as he had imagined. Dont mind the noise chaps, he quips as a police squad files past, ushering us into his towering mansion, which doubles as the Maze.

Built from undulating sweeps of white concrete, intended to mimic Rios rolling hills, the hotel towers above the rest of the city, providing a stunning viewpoint from which to survey Sugar Loaf mountain and the glistening Guanabara Bay which fans across the horizon. The 14 double rooms, filled with an array of curious antique furniture, back onto spacious patios on which visitors can take in the sun while sipping Brazils lime-soaked national drink, the caipirinha. The weekly barbecues organised by Nadkarni and his wife, meanwhile, are becoming legendary across the city. Do I miss anything about Britain? he asks, guiding us around the hotels roomy corridors. Well Indian food, definitely. At times Tavares Bastos can be a noisy community, not least due to Nadkarnis deep, booming voice. But in Rio it is as safe

as they come. Known as a comando azul (blue command) slum, it is controlled by the police rather than drug traffickers, unlike many of the 800 or so favelas spread around the city. Twice a week, special forces use its labyrinthine alleys as a training ground, rehearsing their battle routines although fortunately only with blanks. Many of the Brazilian United Nations peace-keeping troops currently stationed in the slums of Haiti were trained here. A stay at the Maze provides a noisy but fascinating insight into the conflict-ridden underbelly of what is known here as the cidade maravilhosa (marvellous city), and the seductive slopes of Tavares Bastos attract visitors from all over the world. Nadkarni is playing host to one guest from Holland, two Germans and two Danes all have been there for three months. The favelas have a central role in the

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recent history of Rio. The first shanty town, Providncia, sprang up in 1897, as homeless soldiers flocked back from the battle of Canudos in the north-east of Brazil. During the thirties and forties, dozens more favelas appeared, as Rios wealthy middle and upper classes searched for a low-cost workforce to build the luxurious apartment blocks that now tower over the South Zone beaches. Fresh off the trucks that had brought them thousands of miles from home, many of the nordestinos the penniless construction workers who poured in from the rural north-east set up camp where they could: in the favelas. Even today, buses run by specialist operators make the treacherous 40-hour journey from the interior direct to the favelas, bringing thousands of immigrants every year. Around 20% of the citys population now lives in the favelas but despite or perhaps

ITS MUCH SAFER FOR TOURISTS UP HERE THAN IT IS DOWN IN COPACABANA. HERE THERE IS NO WAY YOULL HAVE YOUR WALLET SNATCHED BY A PICKPOCKET

because of their size, the slum districts are often seen as no-go zones to outsiders. Many are controlled by heavily armed teenage drug traffickers, while 20 or so are in active conflict, with three rival cocaine factions engaged in a bloody turf war that claims thousands of young lives each year. It is not uncommon to see automatic rifles on the streets of the favelas, where the flipflop-wearing traficantes are often better armed than the police. But if Brazilians have continually sought to ignore the favelas, the outside world has been fascinated by them for decades. These shanty towns have been on the tourist map since the eighties, when the guidebooks timidly suggested taking a bus ride past the sprawling red-brick communities scattered across the lush hilltops. Awareness of the favelas was raised by the 2002 film Cidade de Deus (City of God),

Young cariocas play near one of the many churches in the favelas. Climbing the steep hillsides to reach the slums is said to be more perilous than facing the rie-carrying drug gangs that loiter on the street corners. Picture: Douglas Engle

based on Paulo Linss disturbing novel, set in the slum of the same name. These days, hordes of 4x4s stream up their vertiginous slopes each day, giving tourists a fleeting glimpse of favela life, where an estimated 1.1 million cariocas (residents of Rio) scrape by, surrounded by open sewers and armed drug traffickers. There is, though, another side to slum life, rarely glimpsed in the headlines. It is the world of the spontaneous samba de roda an improvised musical circle
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Rio bursts into gaudy colour during the carnival every spring, top. City of God, above, gave a grim account of the citys slums, but hotels such as the Maze in Tavares Bastos, right, offer a tranquil experience of the favelas. Pictures: Antonia Scorza/AFP/Getty/Douglas Engle

which animates the small, meticulously stocked street-corner bars all year round. This is a world of affectionately shouted conversations that drift through the shady a lle yw a ys d a y a nd nigh t; of in t en s e religiosity and solidarity; and of curious, smiling children fascinated by the gangly gringo in their community. With several hotels like the Maze now established in the favelas, tourists have begun to experience these brighter sides of slum life. Last month a bed and breakfast opened in t he Bab ilni a f avel a ab ove Copacabana, while not far from Tavares Ba st o s , ne st led ab ove t he u ppe r- cl a ss apartments of Laranjeiras, another favela pousada, or hostel, opened last year. The Favelinha little shanty town is a three-storey building teetering at the peak of Pereiro, another hilltop shanty town w hi c h b eg a n life a s a q u ilom b o , a n autonomous community set up by fleeing slaves. Founded by Andria da Silva Martins a nd he r G e r m a n e x-h us ba nd H olge r Zimmerman, the Favelinha was booked solidly last summer and now has reservations stretching well into the spring. Voyeurs hoping for a glimpse of the cocaine trade wont find it in Pereiro

police closed down the drug gangs there six years ago. Since then, the worst dangers have been the sporadic dog waste that litters the winding stairwells and the bloodthirsty mosquitoes that descend at night. Here youre more likely to hear the varied bird life twittering in the Atlantic rainforest that engulfs the shanty town, and perhaps the occasional cock heralding the new day,

than gunshots. Thank God none of that exists here any more, says Andria. She is standing on the pousadas rooftop veranda, which by day becomes a makeshift sun deck for her clients, who come from as far away as Switzerland and France. Visitors dont need to worry. Theres no way the old problems will come back, she explains confidently. Its much safer for

TRAVEL NOTES
How to get there: Air France ies from Aberdeen to Rio de Janeiro from 450 return. Call 0845 0845 111 or visit www.airfrance.co.uk. Lufthansa ies from Edinburgh to Rio de Janeiro from 767 return. Call 020 8750 3460 or visit www.lufthansa.com Where to stay: The Favelinha, a pousada in the Pereiro favela, has double rooms with private balconies from R$75 (20) a night. The Favelinha offers an airport pick-up service. Visit www.favelinha.com or e-mail info@favelinha.com The Maze hotel in the Tavares Bastos favela on the hilltops over Catete has double rooms from R$60 (16) per night including breakfast. For carnival and New Year it offers a ve-night package for two people at R$600 (157). Call 0055 212 558 5547 or e-mail malunadkarni@yahoo.com.br Other information: To organise a tour of the Providncia favela, write in the rst instance to Marcia Regina Alves da Silva, Morro da Providncia Residents Association, Rua Baro da Gamboa, 21, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, or call 0055 219 395 8923.

tourists here than in Copacabana. Here there is no way youll have your wallet snatched by a pivete [pickpocket] like down there. With the new hotels opening, favela tourism as a whole is undergoing a facelift. Rios authorities recently invested R$14.3m (3.6m) in the creation of an open-air museum in Providncia, which focuses on the areas historical ties to slavery and its role in the history of samba, rather than its cocaine-related infamy. Other tours of Rios slums now seek to show off their historical charms rather than focusing on their poverty. Marcia Regina Alves da Silva is one of the guiding spirits behind this movement, battling to turn Rios oldest slum into the citys principal tourist attraction. As the president of the residents association in the Morro da Providncia, she has taken it upon herself to whisk foreign visitors up the slums steep inclines in search of Brazils past. They [the tourists] cant believe how much history there is up here, says da Silva, outside the colonial-style home of samba queen Dod da Portela, which has been turned into a museum as part of the project. Several soldiers from the local drugs

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WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO ...

Swim on the brink of Victoria Falls

ould I have taken the plunge if the temperature hadnt hit 48 C? If I hadnt seen the British ambassador, dripping but composed, climbing back into his pinstripe trousers? If a family member had been around to tell me to act my age? Probably. I now realise the urge to get intimate with Victoria Falls had been germinating for years. How do you swim on the brim of the worlds widest curtain of falling water without plopping over its 330ft drop? When the Zambezi is in full flood, you can see little but spray known as the smoke that thunders. By the end of the dry season the water level has fallen, the tower of spray dwindles and the curtain parts between the main cataracts to expose the cliffs. Which are fearsome enough. I first saw them from the Zimbabwe side and watched, transfixed, as half a dozen people in swimsuits picked their way across Livingstone Island, disappeared at the top of the precipice and reappeared to lean their elbows on a ledge overhanging the drop. Who are these idiots? I asked myself. Im about to become one of them. The Zambia-Zimbabwe border places two-thirds of the falls in Zambias stewardship, and Livingstone Island is a World Heritage Site run by a celebrated lodge called Tongabezi, which controls visits to the island. On my first visit to the Zambian side the current was too strong to do the Devils Pool swim but I inspected the route, a channel of about 10 yards between Livingstone Island and an islet on the brink. Ten months later, at the end of the dry season, Im back, on the 150th anniversary of the day when David Livingstone saw the Zambezi. The commemorative events hence the ambassadors presence include a lunch party on Livingstone Island and an invitation to bring swimsuits. James, the Tongabezi guide, leads volunteers in parties of four into the water, where I feel a modest tug of current and minnows nibbling my legs. The edge of the falls is only a few feet away but I keep my eye on James and find the swim easy. The barefoot totter across rocks to the Devils Pool is more difficult, but Im so excited I ignore the stab in my foot. Then we slip into the death-defying swimming hole, which is deep enough to allow James to demonstrate his diving skills. Heart fibrillating, I clutch the narrow wall of rock which is the only restraint between me and the Boiling Pot below, and peer into the void. The wind pushes the current, which playfully hints it might enjoy tipping me over. But by this time Im daft with delight. Its only when I see gobbets of blood on the rocks I realise Ive gashed my foot. The scar remains, a badge of honour. I quite enjoy the thought that Ive left some of my blood on the cusp of Victoria Falls.

faction slump against the street corner, cracking jokes. One of them, carrying an automatic rifle in one hand and a carton of washing powder in the other, smiles as we pass. Dont worry about them they dont bother anyone, says da Silva. Its the stairs you need to worry about. Providncia is immersed in history. The staircase leading up into its main square was built by slaves in the 19th century and its church, the Igreja de Nossa Senhora da P enh a, ba l a n c ed on t he f avel a s pe a k , features religious imagery from the 18th century. From here, theres an unrivalled view over the Sambodromo stadium, due to erupt with percussion and strobe lights when the carnival begins on February 21. It is basically an open-air museum, explains an out-of-breath da Silva, as we reach the first of four viewpoints on the fringe of the community. You can see the four corners of Rio from up here. People down there cant imagine what it is like. She is visibly exhausted from the climb. They have the impression the favela is just a place of violence and poverty, she stutters, but just look at all this.

CACHAMBI

SO CRISTOVO ROCHA

GAMBOA CENTRO SANTA TERESA Airport

TIJUCA
Pico da Tijuca Parque Nacional da Tijuca Alto da Boa Vista Corcovado and Statue of Christ the Redeemer

CATETE
Sugar Loaf mountain

URCA LEME COPACABANA

Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas

SO CONRADO
2 miles

GVEA

IPANEMA

BRAZIL

The favelas of Rio grew on the hillsides above districts such as Catete and Copacabana as poor construction workers arrived from outlying areas.

JULIE DAVIDSON